Table Of ContentAffirming Methodologies
Affirming Methodologies: Research and Education in the Caribbean centres local and
indigenous ways of knowing in research and education praxis in the Caribbean.
The research methodologies and pedagogies are presented in this book within
an Affirming Methodologies framework. They bring forward localized episte-
mologies whereby Caribbean ways of being and knowing are affirmed, and the
expected western hierarchies between researcher and researched are removed.
The chapters present approaches to knowledge construction and knowl-
edge sharing based on practices, lived experiences, traditions, language pat-
terns, and rituals of Caribbean communities. The importance of an Affirming
Methodologies approach is demonstrated, and the characteristics of culturally
affirming research methodologies and pedagogies in diverse environments
including Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and the Caribbean diaspora in
Aotearoa New Zealand and Canada are explored and presented. Grounded on an
understanding of the authors’ Caribbean positionality, ontological distinctions
within the Caribbean research context are considered. This book moves forward
from a decolonizing methodology approach, and, as such, the chapters are writ-
ten, not in opposition to, or tested against Eurocentric approaches to research,
but deeply rooted in a Caribbean ethos.
This book will engage researchers (both qualitative and quantitative), post-
graduate students, academics, practitioners, policymakers, community workers,
and lay persons who seek to employ culturally relevant local and indigenous
research approaches in their work. Each chapter offers practical suggestions on
the ‘how’ of research practice, making them accessible, relevant, and flexible for
novice and seasoned researchers alike.
Camille Nakhid is from Trinidad and Tobago and is a Professor in the School
of Social Sciences and Public Policy at Auckland University of Technology. Her
research interests include culturally relevant research methodologies, and social
issues impacting ethnic and migrant communities.
Margaret Nakhid-Chatoor is a Psychologist and an Assistant Professor at the
University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) in the Department of Social Sciences.
Her research areas include at-risk youth, the parental bereavement of children
and adolescents and interventions structured around grief and loss in families.
Anabel Fernández Santana is a Cuban sociologist based in Aotearoa New
Zealand. Her academic work has revolved around culturally affirming method-
ologies, culture and identity. After obtaining her PhD from Auckland University
of Technology, Anabel’s practice has interwoven culturally affirming research
with innovation for social change alongside communities.
Shakeisha Wilson-Scott is a trained social scientist with over 15 years of expe-
rience teaching at the tertiary level. Her research interest has largely focused
on marginalized groups such as persons with disabilities. She expects that the
current work on Affirming Methodologies will be of great value in her own
teaching experiences and work at the grassroots levels.
Affirming Methodologies
Research and Education
in the Caribbean
Edited by Camille Nakhid,
Margaret Nakhid-Chatoor,
Anabel Fernández Santana
and Shakeisha Wilson-Scott
Cover image: © Sean Gladwell/Getty Images
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Camille Nakhid,
Margaret Nakhid-Chatoor, Anabel Fernández Santana and
Shakeisha Wilson-Scott; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Camille Nakhid, Margaret Nakhid-Chatoor,
Anabel Fernández Santana and Shakeisha Wilson-Scott to be identified
as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their
individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and
78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other
means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-032-05305-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-05308-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-19696-9 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003196969
Typeset in Bembo
by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
To our mothers Rita, Imelda, Marguerite, Vivinee
and Dania.
And to mothers of all genders who have taken care of
us and continue to do so.
Contents
Foreword ix
Introduction: Defining Affirming Methodologies and
Articulating a Caribbean Space 1
Camille Nakhid
PART I
Culturally Affirming Methodologies for Caribbean Research
1 Researcher Positioning in the Caribbean Research Space 17
Margaret Nakhid-Chatoor and Jean Butcher-Lashley
2 Liming Methodology as a Culturally Affirming Approach to
Research in Caribbean Contexts 33
Anabel Fernández Santana
3 Mash-Up as Method: Building Community-Based
Approaches to Caribbean Feminist Research 58
Ryan Persadie and Suzanne Narain
PART II
Affirming Caribbean Pedagogies in Academia
4 Shifting from Hegemonic Teaching and Practices to
Liberating and Affirmative Caribbean Pedagogies 77
Pauline Bullen and Jennifer D. Adams
viii Contents
5 Affirming an Endonormative Approach in Language
Research Design in the Caribbean 90
Kristian Ali, Ben Braithwaite, Ryan Durgasingh,
Samantha Jackson and Nicha Selvon-Ramkissoon
6 Comparative Collaboration: Possibilities and Positionalities
within Culturally Affirming Methodologies 115
Joyanne De Four-Babb, Talia Esnard, Laurette Bristol,
Theresa Coye, Lisa Ibrahim-Joseph, Ines Gill-Grill and Lisa Perez
7 Popular Education as an Emancipatory Approach to
Knowledge Construction: Experiences from Cuba 128
Yaima Elena Rodríguez Alomar and Yaima Palacio Verona
PART III
Affirming Indigenous Practices
8 Groundings and Rastafari: Re-territorializing Caribbean
Indigenous Knowledges 157
Yentyl Williams, Aleema Gray and Chevy Eugene
9 Affirming Methodologies in Peace and Conflict Studies 173
Kelli Te Maihāroa, Heather Devere and Michael Ligaliga
10 Cultural Affirmation through Meaning Reconstruction
of Rituals and Practices within the Caribbean 187
Margaret Nakhid-Chatoor
Conclusion 203
Shakeisha Wilson-Scott
Index 212
Foreword
To most people who stem from outside of the Caribbean, the most benevolent
perception of the region is that it is a playground for both foreigner visitors and
the people who inhabit those islands. To them, the Caribbean is a place where
nothing serious goes on or is allowed to take hold. For researchers at Caribbean
institutions and those elsewhere who attempt to study the social behaviour of
the Caribbean peoples, especially using qualitative methods, this perception may
very well pose a challenge to getting their work published in high impact jour-
nals, possibly too because of the related editorial and reviewer presumptions that
social norms of the Caribbean countries may not be generalizable to larger, first
world states and so readership interest could be lacking. As long as qualitative
research of Caribbean societies utilizes only Eurocentric Methodologies and
takes a deductive approach, in which inferences drawn and models developed in
those studies must be shown to be in lockstep with those from studies of larger,
different societies, researchers do themselves no favour. In such processes, the
authentic voices of the Caribbean populations and the actual Norms of societal
behaviour in the region are lost to view and to true understanding.
Yet there are success examples, in which raw Caribbean authenticity has pushed
through and found voice and recognition globally. Many genres of Caribbean
music (the Reggae of Bob Marley, Dance Hall, Calypso, Soca, Chutney, to name
a few) are enjoyed and appreciated globally, with no need for subtitles or for
Anglicizing or Americanizing the lyrics. West Indian Fictional Literature, Vidya
Naipaul’s works, based on Trinidad and Tobago’s urban and rural societies, being
chief among them, have received the highest level of international recognition,
even with characters who were given pure authentic idiomatic voice and even
without the need for glossaries.
This book looks to follow the proven success pathways of Marley, Naipaul
et al. The Caribbean is important for more than play or even entertainment and
